Gillard opens way for migration debate

Prime Minister Julia Gillard has opened the way for a Labor debate on migration policy at the party’s national conference in early December after telling her colleagues on Tuesday that the current party platform could mean “all things to all people".

Ms Gillard acknowledged the party’s internal row over her Malaysia solution for asylum seekers by using her remarks to the Labor caucus to call for a wider debate on the official party policy.

The comments come as parliament prepares for a vote on Thursday when Ms Gillard will seek the support of cross-bench MPs for the government’s proposed amendments to migration law to proceed with the Malaysia solution, overcoming a High Court decision that stymied the policy.

The Labor Left has spoken out against the tougher migration regime, with some MPs claiming that the government policy breached the party’s written platform agreed at previous conferences.

Ms Gillard took those comments on directly at the caucus meeting on Tuesday morning by telling her colleagues that the platform was written in a way that could mean “all things to all people" and that the party needed to have a debate on migration and other issues at the national conference.

“She said the platform could be read in different ways, and clearly it is being read in different ways by different people," a caucus spokesman said.

It was in the long-term interest of the party to have these debates and get these issues resolved, Ms Gillard told the meeting.

While Ms Gillard began her discussion of the party platform with a reference to the migration amendment, she broadened the argument to make a general point about the need to arrive at a common position at the national conference.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

Caucus also heard a debate on the live export of cattle during which eight speakers differed over whether to mandate the use of stunning to ensure animal welfare.

The debate was triggered by a motion brought by some members of the Labor caucus that sought to toughen the regime introduced by Agriculture Minister Joe Ludwig after he had ended the suspension of live cattle exports to Indonesia earlier this year.

While Senator Ludwig’s regime does not insist that abattoirs stun animals before killing them, a group within the caucus wants changes to bring this about.

But it appears that the group did not have the numbers to force the changes through the caucus.

The third part of the motion put to caucus on Tuesday would have required stunning to be a condition of all export permits after January 2013.

The group’s motion was amended by the caucus to the effect that expressed a “preference" for stunning rather than insisting upon it.

“It wasn’t unanimous but there was a very clear majority in favour of the amendment and the motion," the caucus spokesman said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told the Coalition party room meeting on Tuesday that the government’s troubles with its migration amendment were part of a series of problems that showed it was not working.

“The government is in so much trouble because its policies palpably will not work," Mr Abbott told the meeting, according to an account by a Coalition spokesman later.

“He said the government was not only incompetent and untrustworthy but wracked with leadership tension," a Coalition spokesman said. Mr Abbott added that while the Prime Minister was watching her back she was not governing the country.